20 most common Filipino words that you might want to know

A few words used in modern-day Filipino vernacular actually have quite the head-turning (or, at the very least, brain-tickling) origins. Words like these:

1. Diskarte: This word is the Filipino counterpart to the English “cunning”. I’m pretty sure “diskarte” traces its origins from French mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes — the guy who immortalized the power and importance of a sharp mind with the words “Cogito ergo sum” (Latin: “I think, therefore I am”).

2. Kumusta: Our generic greeting actually comes from — yup! — the Spanish “Como estas?”

3. Jack-en-poy: Known in the West as “rock-paper-scissors”, both the designation and the game itself are Japanese in origin, where it goes by “jan-ken-pon” or just “janken”.

4. Bahala na: The Filipino statement for leaving things up to a higher power or fate or chance or what-have-you is a corruption of the phrase “si Bathala na”, referring to the head deity of the pre-colonial Tagalog pantheon. Looked at from this perspective, the term comes off as less “YOLO” and more “Your will be done”, somehow.

5. Epal: Back when hippies proliferated among the bustling streets of Metropolitan Manila (c. mid-70′s to early 80′s), the tendency to rearrange words’ syllables was hot stuff. They popularized contraptions like “dehins” (corruption of “hindi”), “repapips” (corruption of “pare”, combined with American slang word “peeps”), “tipar” (corruption of “party”), and, of course, epal. According to MgaEpal.com, the word “epal” originated from “mapapel” (Tagalog term for “attention w***e”; currently seems to pertain to a sub-specie of public officer, but I digress). The word’s evolution happened this way — first was “mapapel”, which got compressed to “maepal”, which in turn got shortened to “epal”.

6. Elibs: Taking a page off “epal”, “elibs” is a corruption of “bilib”.

7. Iglesiya: The word “iglesiya” or “iglesia” is exculsively used by the Christian population to refer to their respective denominations (e.g. Iglesia ni Kristo, Santa Iglesia Katolika, etc.). It has its origins in the Latin “ecclessia”, which refers to a church, both as a congregation and as a building.

8. Kama: Well, this may come as a surprise to some. The Filipino word for “bed” comes from Kama, the Hindu god of love and sexual desire. Make out of that what you will.

9. Praning: Hailing from the same era that produced “epal” and “elibs”, “praning” is a corruption of the word “paranoid” with the suffix “-ing” attached at the end. Adding “-ing” to words here and there seems to have been quite prevalent back then, as was the case with the words “buking” (from “buko” which translates to “to have been found out” or “to find out”) and “pabling” (no idea on the etymology of this one, but it translates to “womanizer” or “playboy”).

10. Bagets: The root word of this 70′s term for teenagers is “bago” — or, perhaps more appropriately, a variation thereof: “bagito”.

11. Barkada: This word comes from the Spanish word “barca” which means “boat”, referring to a group of friends’ tendency to stick together — i.e. in the same boat. More or less.

12. Utol: The Filipino slang word for “sibling” is actually culled from the Filipino word “kaputol” — pertaining to siblings as different parts of one whole, (and I shall wax poetic a little bit here) different manifestations of the same flesh and blood, branches sprouting off the same tree. This way of exulting sibling relations is but a testament to the strong familial ties of Filipinos.

13. Karibal: This word originates from the Latin word “rival”.

14. Hanep: Let me say outright that while the origins of this word could be easily traced, the manner in which it gained widespread usage and the reason behind it, too, are kind of blurry. Anyways, the word “hanep”  comes from “hanip” (likewise a Filipino word) which refers to some kind of chicken lice. Really. Now, back in the day, “hanep” slowly began to replace “hayop” as the main word for expressing awesomeness (e.g. “Hanep ‘yung kotse na ‘yun o!”); this is apparently because “hayop” sounds too brusque for everyday usage.

15. Kursunada: This word, which means “greatly desired”, is a corruption of the Spanish “corazonada”, which translates to “hunch”, “feeling”, or “impulse”. Some commentators (law book? :P) say that this is one instance of the meaning of the root word becoming lost in transliteration, with a new meaning stuck to it in the process, but I respectfully disagree. “Kursunada”, after all, is used as an adjective to describe one who incites this certain impulse in you, an overreaching feeling, complete with a hunch hanging at the back of your mind as to whether that person would in any case like you back (or something like that) — a bit of a stretch, but still a definite throwback to the word’s origins.

16. Istambay: This is a corruption of the English term “stand-by”, referring to the act of standing by — just hanging around and lazing off.

17. Naks: This word, in essence and practice similar to “hanep”, is the shortened form of “anak ng ****”, a derogatory phrase which is sometimes used to express pleasant surprise or awe.

The Filipino language is pretty much like English when it comes to flexibility — “easy assimilation and constant evolution” is the name of the game, and among the family of tongues, Filipino and English are the best at it. Now, as far as “constant evolution” is concerned, my friends and I have come up with a couple of new words. Here they are:

18. Unggas: This is a portmanteau of “unggoy” and “ungas”.

19. Nakakaina: This is a portmanteau of “nakakainis” and “tang***”.

20. Nampating: This is a compressed variant of “anak ng pating”.

… aaaaaand that’s a wrap! Here’s hoping you, dear reader, learned something new.